President Trump’s administration is drastically shrinking the size and mission of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, part of a months-long gambit to scale back the financial regulator.
Roughly 1,500 employees — or almost 90% of the agency’s staff — will be cut from the CFPB, leaving around 200 people, according to an administration official who wasn’t authorized to disclose the figure publicly and spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity. Fox Business first reported the number of layoffs.
Employees started receiving layoff notices on Thursday. Their access to agency systems, including emails, ends on Friday evening.
“The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau identified your position being eliminated and your employment is subject to termination in accordance with reduction-in-force (RIF) procedures,” the emails said.
Mark Paoletta, the chief legal officer for the agency, sent a message to employees on Wednesday describing a reduced mission, with plans to “shift resources away from enforcement and supervision that can be done by the States,” he wrote.
Problems with mortgages will be the top priority, while issues involving medical debt, student loans and digital payments will receive less attention, according to Paoletta.
The CFPB was created after the 2008 financial crisiswith a mandate to enforce consumer protection laws and oversee banks and other financial institutions — in some cases seeking relief or refunds for consumers.
The agency has drawn Republican criticism for years, with some lawmakers viewing it as overzealous or unnecessary since other federal agencies already regulate the financial sector. More recently, the CFPB has been a top target of Mr. Trump’s government cost-cutting efforts, led by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, which has sought sweeping cuts to the federal workforce.
Members of the DOGE team entered the financial protection agency’s headquarters on Feb. 7 and were granted extensive access to the agency’s computer systems, CBS News reported. Musk posted on X that same day, “CFPB RIP.”
Russell Vought, who runs the Office of Management and Budget, ordered the agency to stop nearly all of its work in February. Last month, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson barred the Trump administration from enforcing the stop-work order or laying off CFPB staff for non-performance reasons. But an appeals court partially stayed that ruling last week, allowing the administration to terminate employees if it determines they aren’t necessary to carry out the CFPB’s legal duties.
Former CFPB Director Rohit Chopra, a Biden-era appointee fired by Mr. Trump, sharply criticized cuts to the agency in a February interview with CBS News’ “60 Minutes.” He argued the agency has been targeted because major financial institutions “want a situation where the agency is a lapdog rather than a watchdog.”
